Welcome to Tesla Motors Club
Discuss Tesla's Model S, Model 3, Model X, Model Y, Cybertruck, Roadster and More.
Register

Free Supercharging Still Worth It?

This site may earn commission on affiliate links.
I have a 2018 Model 3 RWD that is great and does pretty much what I need it to do. However, I find myself needing more trunk space and my passengers need more space in the back seat. I'm on the FSD beta, but don't really use it as much since it's nowhere near stable enough to be comfortable (in my opinion). I'm starting to think about buying a used Model S especially with the changes to the stalk and steering wheel. I hardly go on long trips in the 3 mainly because of the trunk space and back seat comfort and have driven an S in the past and like how more more "premium" it feels and how much larger it feels. I feel like supercharger pricing will continue to go up with the superchargers being opened up to more cars and with peak/non-peak pricing going up in CA.

Is it unreasonable to think that I could find a SC01 Model S with my range requirements (250-300 miles), having the MCU upgrade, free premium connectivity, and the earlier Autopilot that is more stable?
 
I have a 2018 Model 3 RWD that is great and does pretty much what I need it to do. However, I find myself needing more trunk space and my passengers need more space in the back seat. I'm on the FSD beta, but don't really use it as much since it's nowhere near stable enough to be comfortable (in my opinion). I'm starting to think about buying a used Model S especially with the changes to the stalk and steering wheel. I hardly go on long trips in the 3 mainly because of the trunk space and back seat comfort and have driven an S in the past and like how more more "premium" it feels and how much larger it feels. I feel like supercharger pricing will continue to go up with the superchargers being opened up to more cars and with peak/non-peak pricing going up in CA.

Is it unreasonable to think that I could find a SC01 Model S with my range requirements (250-300 miles), having the MCU upgrade, free premium connectivity, and the earlier Autopilot that is more stable?
You’ll pay a premium for such a configuration on a car that most likely will be out of warranty.
 
What would be the main concerns (maintenance wise) for a Model S out of warranty?
Door handles, AC charger, cooling system faults, displays.

That’s in addition to being subject to the whims of Tesla manipulating the BMS to cap top pack voltage so as to nurse the battery along from failure while still in battery and drive warranty coverage.
 
  • Informative
Reactions: QUBO
Door handles, AC charger, cooling system faults, displays.

That’s in addition to being subject to the whims of Tesla manipulating the BMS to cap top pack voltage so as to nurse the battery along from failure while still in battery and drive warranty coverage.
That doesn't sound as appealing, so I should look at Model S's still in warranty and forego the free supercharging?
 
That doesn't sound as appealing, so I should look at Model S's still in warranty and forego the free supercharging?
I mean the pricing is gonna suck regardless but if you intend to pound the pavement a good bit and are aware of what could go wrong with the car then FUSC is definitely worth something.

You just gotta find your pain tolerance and be ready.
 
  • Like
Reactions: buckets0fun
I mean the pricing is gonna suck regardless but if you intend to pound the pavement a good bit and are aware of what could go wrong with the car then FUSC is definitely worth something.

You just gotta find your pain tolerance and be ready.
Well I bought the Model 3 with FSD thinking it was going to be a 10 year car, but 4 years in and still no actual FSD. I will have to look into what happens to Model S's out of warranty.
 
  • Like
Reactions: ElectricIAC
One very important question is how much do you actually need to Supercharge? (i.e. do you rely on it for everyday charging, or just on road trips...do you anticipate doing lots of long trips?) The idea is to figure out how much the free unlimited Supercharging is actually worth. (At one point I'd computed it was worth about $1000 to me over 7 years.)

Couple of other thoughts (based on owning 2015 Model S85D and a 2022 LR Model X...these are my experiences with these specific vehicles, but I think the X can serve as a proxy for your 3):

My S charges a lot slower than my X. Partially this is due to the power systems and battery in the newer cars, but also because Tesla slowed down the charging curve of the 85 battery packs compared to when they were new. This makes charging stops on road trips longer (and longer than when the S was new).

AP1 on the Model S has more features than the included Autopilot functionality on current Teslas (AP HW3), but fewer features than the EAP or FSD packages. But for my use case of just driving down the freeway, AP1 beats AP3. It's more steady and does a way better job tracking speed and distance from cars in front. I hope this situation improves.

The seats are different between my two Teslas. I vastly prefer the newer seats in my X, which I believe are similar to your 3.

Oh yeah in addition to issues other people mentioned, add the rear liftgate latch actuator. Probably minor compared to the eMMC and door handles.

Hope this helps,

Bruce.
 
Just a datapoint for you: as others said, you will pay a premium for that configuration, especially as crazy as used Tesla prices have gotten lately. A couple months ago I decided to upgrade my 2015 Titanium Metallic Model S 70D to a 2016.5 refresh 90D (see avatar), because I wanted to keep the free supercharging. The one I found at Carvana has 41,000 miles on it, and was $59k. I have an appointment in 2 weeks to have the MCU upgraded to MCU2, as I had in my 2015, because I really miss Youtube, etc while my wife is shopping. The upgrade + tax is about $1800. The factory warranty is long gone, except for the battery and drivetrain warranty until 09/24. It still has 275 miles usable range, about 50 more that my 70D still had at 48,000 miles, so I'm happy about that part.
 
  • Like
Reactions: ElectricIAC
Another datapoint for based upon my ownership of a June 2016 built MS90D, AP1 for little over 6 years and about 69k miles.

Only you can determine your economic value of free supercharging. For me about 45% of my total miles charging is via superchargers on long range trips. One of the difficulties in valuing that is the ever changing pricing structure for supercharging, which Tesla doesn't easily make visible, especially if you have free supercharging and don't actually see any pricing even if you look at a supercharger in the NAV system. If I look at what those miles would have cost charging at home, multiple by a factor of 3 or 4, I still only come up with something like $2-3K savings over 6 years. I'll admit, one of the reasons I've held off replacing my MD90D is the though or losing this free supercharging benefit, but that's more an emotional, psychological response. The cold hard numbers say it's less than what many pay on custom wheels, PPF or color wrap, tints, etc., or even just getting a non-standard interior/exterior color combination.

I do fully agree with @bmah comment about AP1 for highway driving. I find it really solid, generally predictable, and meets my needs very well for my long range travel use case. I'll admit there was a bit of "oh man, I really lost out" reaction when AP2 was announced just 3 months after getting my car, but that again has played out as largely an emotional reaction, and as much as the geek in me would love all the bells and whistles of FSD at the moment, it honestly wouldn't improve my driving experience (some would argue it would degrade my driving experience given the greater propensity to phantom braking).

While I won't argue that the supercharging speed of my MS90D is as fast as a new MSLR or even a 2019-2021 model, on my MS90D it is actually faster than when I first got my car. While you will hear all the chargegate comments about owners with 85 packs (which I do not dispute) for my mid-2016 90 pack I cannot claim any indication of throttling. At a V3 supercharger, I see upwards of 150 kW when my battery is up to optimal temperatures and SOC in the 25-30% range. Here's data from earlier this spring/summer at a few different locations in the midwest. My total charging times at a typical stop are same or a few minutes faster than back in 2016-2017. I am currently at about 8.5-9% apparent range degradation, around 268-270 miles on a full charge vs the 294 rated when new.
1662166688727.png

I've commented in some other posts about my out of warranty maintenance experience, but other than a couple door handles, recently replacing the 12V battery, and electing to upgrade to MCU2, I've not had any issues. I do have 1 headlight where the DRL "eyebrow" is yellowed/dimmed (three replaced under warranty) but I view that as cosmetic, not functional failure, and have elected to not replace (I put that money into MCU2 upgrade instead!).

1662166688727.png
 
Another datapoint for based upon my ownership of a June 2016 built MS90D, AP1 for little over 6 years and about 69k miles.

Only you can determine your economic value of free supercharging. For me about 45% of my total miles charging is via superchargers on long range trips. One of the difficulties in valuing that is the ever changing pricing structure for supercharging, which Tesla doesn't easily make visible, especially if you have free supercharging and don't actually see any pricing even if you look at a supercharger in the NAV system. If I look at what those miles would have cost charging at home, multiple by a factor of 3 or 4, I still only come up with something like $2-3K savings over 6 years. I'll admit, one of the reasons I've held off replacing my MD90D is the though or losing this free supercharging benefit, but that's more an emotional, psychological response. The cold hard numbers say it's less than what many pay on custom wheels, PPF or color wrap, tints, etc., or even just getting a non-standard interior/exterior color combination.

I have unlimited supercharging, if you go to your tesla account and click on the charging history it will tell you the price that it would have cost you.

3 years ago when I bought my car it was $.25/kW, it went up $.05 per year to $.40 now. (costs increased 20% per year)

Who knows what the price of charging will be in the future, but it's definitely not getting cheaper and I think unlimited is going to be worth more and more.
 

Attachments

  • charging cost.png
    charging cost.png
    8.1 KB · Views: 107
I have unlimited supercharging, if you go to your tesla account and click on the charging history it will tell you the price that it would have cost you.

3 years ago when I bought my car it was $.25/kW, it went up $.05 per year to $.40 now. (costs increased 20% per year)

Who knows what the price of charging will be in the future, but it's definitely not getting cheaper and I think unlimited is going to be worth more and more.
I'm aware those reports exist (and I actually have downloaded historical copies). They do not give a total cost, although I could take the time to go through and calculate one for each session from the quantity and unit price for each of the tiers.

However doesn't help me if I'm interested in evaluating potential trips where I might travel to locations where I've never charged before, or even if it's been a few months since I've been there. This is where I make the comment that Tesla doesn't make it easy. Tesla actually published on their web site pricing by state where you could at least get a sense, especially for a prospective owner that does not have actual charging history, which is the case of the OP that started this thread.

I have that exact situation coming up in about 2 weeks from now. I'm looking at about a 1,500 mile round trip to visit my daughter who just moved to a different state/city. This trip will include traveling across two states where I've never traveled in the last 6 years that I'm owned my MS90D. I can use a general $0.45-$0.50 per kWh to do a swag of it, but I honestly don't know if those costs are representative of those areas or not. And Tesla doesn't show me anything to improve that guess.

All of which is why I made the comment that Tesla doesn't make it easy to estimate the economic value of unlimited free supercharging.
 
I have a 2015 MS 85D, paid 2K CDN to add FUSC at the time of delivery in March 2015. We have done a few long trips over the years, Vancouver BC to Phoenix/ Las Vegas/Edmonton and return as 3 separate trips. Last June 2021 we did Vancouver to Niagara Falls and back, 9000KM. Likely more than 99 percent was supercharging. Using the billing data available from Tesla, we spent about 505.00 CDN to cover this distance, about 5.6 cents/km. Not even sure what that would have cost gas in our BMW X3.
A few of those stops required near full charging, over an hour to push us into the 90 to 100 SOC region.
FUSC is a rare find on a used Tesla, even more rare to find it on something other than an 85 pack that is not neutered. It may still make some sense for long travel, but the long charge times have sucked the joy out of it.
Our 2021 MY charges so quick, but we still use the MS for long trips because of the comfortable ride.
What am I saying!? I think I am talking in circles. I agree with bmah above, FUSC is not really used by most people to it's fullest potential. There are other features and considerations that make newer models a better overall choice that having FUSC (like much better AC in the Y over the older MS).
+1 for AP1 and +1 for 2 screens, still do not like the single screen in the MY/3.
 
  • Like
Reactions: ElectricIAC
2015 70D that can peak at 100kw ... some times. The problem is that it is variable. FUSC
We also have a 2019 Model 3LR-RWD. And now, I really hate those old 150 kw chargers. My family is very impatient.
We take the 3 everytime we travel and need to supercharge. Even when the AWD would have been preferred (mountain rental that recommended it - in the summer - the 3 did great). Now we are in a relatively low cost electricity area. But - yeah - I pay $15 to save 15 minutes on a family car trip. And I am a total cheapskate normally. Never have more than 1 streaming service at a time kind of cheap. Mint mobile cheap.
Obviously 305 mile range beats 215 every time. But 215 would be fine with close chargers and 200 kw charging. And where we go we typically have every 50 mile spacing and I have no issues rolling in with 10 miles.
 
I am retired and have FUSC, so don't have the time constraints that most would have when they supercharge rather than plugging in at home nightly.
I have to admit to a little frisson at sitting in the machine watching the news or whatever while getting free travel but I do understand that I'm one of the lucky ones at being able to choose.
 
  • Like
Reactions: ElectricIAC
I'm aware those reports exist (and I actually have downloaded historical copies). They do not give a total cost, although I could take the time to go through and calculate one for each session from the quantity and unit price for each of the tiers.

However doesn't help me if I'm interested in evaluating potential trips where I might travel to locations where I've never charged before, or even if it's been a few months since I've been there. This is where I make the comment that Tesla doesn't make it easy. Tesla actually published on their web site pricing by state where you could at least get a sense, especially for a prospective owner that does not have actual charging history, which is the case of the OP that started this thread.

I have that exact situation coming up in about 2 weeks from now. I'm looking at about a 1,500 mile round trip to visit my daughter who just moved to a different state/city. This trip will include traveling across two states where I've never traveled in the last 6 years that I'm owned my MS90D. I can use a general $0.45-$0.50 per kWh to do a swag of it, but I honestly don't know if those costs are representative of those areas or not. And Tesla doesn't show me anything to improve that guess.

All of which is why I made the comment that Tesla doesn't make it easy to estimate the economic value of unlimited free supercharging.

it's simple to calculate though, you just open excel and do a functionto get the first 4 characters of the kwh column (=left(cell,4)) , then the first 3 characters of the cost column. Multiply and sum the 2 columns. In 2.5 years my total savings was $2,498 (with the value increasing every year). I would put an economic current value of that at around $10,000

If you already have free supercharging why do you need to calculate potential trips? You can take the trip and then calculate what it was when you're home.
 
Last edited:
I have a 2017 S90D Jan build with FUSC that will transfer to the next owner.

My car still charges at a good rate although not as fast as the model 3’s and Y’s pulling in.

Just finished a 4,600 mile road trip from MI to Nova Scotia and earlier this summer did a 5,300 mile road trip through MT, WY and CO back to MI.

I’d say about 80% of the time, the car was ready to go before I was. Most of the time was able to eat at nearby restaurants and worked out well. Was like getting a free meal every time we stopped. Couple other places were at hotels where I stayed the night.

The “gas savings” are exaggerated to a “similar” gas car but actually compare pretty close what MY gas car would have cost me.

As far as AP2, had 3 phantom braking events and two of those were minor. I’ve learned to see where it may have an issue.

AP1 does better where highway on ramps don’t have the dashed lines in the lanes. AP1 seems to track the left one line and AP2 tries to center between the lane lines.

I’m in no hurry to sell my car.
 

Attachments

  • D6263DC0-8B58-4C04-BA56-384D33FA9D42.png
    D6263DC0-8B58-4C04-BA56-384D33FA9D42.png
    75.3 KB · Views: 108
  • D65FAA7A-4B3A-4B58-AAAD-2E1A5291BCBA.png
    D65FAA7A-4B3A-4B58-AAAD-2E1A5291BCBA.png
    78.8 KB · Views: 83
  • Like
Reactions: BrownOuttaSpec
I bought a used 2013 model s p85 for 36k before prices went up. I got it with unlimited supercharging.

I live in apartments where we have a slow charger, but also have a supercharger near by if i dont have the time for a slow charger.

I use the supercharger ALOT. I have traveled from NC to PA back and forth multiple times , 500 miles each way. Superchaged all the way every time.

It is definitely worth it! I have a 328i which just sits there. Havent been to a gas station in forever. I forgot what it feels like to fill gas and what it feels like to pay for gas. Never on my mind. I drive for fun because i can just supercharge if needed, no money out of my pocket.

End of story: Unlimited supercharging is amazing!